Holes In Thoughts: July 2007

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Faraway Graffiti

I've been considering my usage of the words 'visited' and 'been to.' It seems to me that I have visited Chicago, when I was young, in that I've walked around the place, but gained no true understanding of the place.

On the other hand, I've definitely 'been in' Tokyo and Okinawa; my visits there over the course of four and three years, spanning several months and a few weeks each time (respectively), I have a certain understanding of the way the places work.

This came up while I was considering exactly how much and what kind of national and international travel I aspire to go and do. I'd rather not bunny-hop from city to city for a day or two. You don't get a good understanding of a place in a day; all you get is souvenirs. But obviously there's a limit to how many places you can live in a lifetime. I haven't solved the problem, yet.

I've also found a fascinating graffiti artist in the UK (via the Daily Dish): Banksy. His work very much reminds me of a bit of graffiti art I found in Okinawa, on the seawall. It was painted over by Summer '03.

Labels: art, language, life, Okinawa, Tokyo, travel

posted by Steve @ 6:47 PM 0 comments

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Endings and Beginnings

I had a lovely 27th birthday party, and have come to understand that my favorite kind of get-together/party involves about 3-10 of my friends. I'll have to remember that when we have our housewarming party in about 3 weeks.

A beginning: our time here in this apartment is coming to an end, and we're doing it the right way: giving ourselves a week and a half to move. The new place is a duplex with covered parking right outside the door, and enough room for a basketball hoop and a garden in the back yard. It also has laundry machines, thank God.

An end: I picked up the seventh and final Harry Potter book at midnight on my birthday. I didn't go to sleep - I stayed up until about 10am reading, slept for four hours, and woke up to finish the book. I'm still recovering, a bit, but my impression is favorable. Before judging it properly, though, I'm going to re-read the entire series once we've moved (the other books are packed up already).

A beginning: I bought an expensive PDA/phone, the Treo 755p. It replaces my old phone, a Sanyo SCO-7200, which I will honestly miss (still have to donate it to a recycling service). It was a beast, and survived more falls than I care to think about. I'll have to be much more careful with my new phone. The idea with the new phone is that I will be able to keep myself organized, and also have directions on me while traveling (it has Google maps).

An end: we're not slackin' anymore, and finally starting to keep proper records. We're going to take an inventory of everything we have for our insurance. Believe me, it's amazing how much stuff one has, especially all the ancillary stuff. Imagine how much it would cost to replace just the stuff you use in the bathroom (razors, shampoo, scrubber, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.). This also involves keeping track of important receipts and warranties.

A beginning: I'm about halfway through organizing my photo archive. Once I'm finished, I'll be posting them onto various stock photo websites and hopefully I'll make a couple bucks here and there.

An ending: the process of getting the truck all fixed up is basically over, now that it's re-wired, if Saguaro Auto gets the thing to pass emissions (we'll find out tomorrow). At this point, we've pretty much redone everything. Of course, there's a lot of glaring problems: the passenger door doesn't lock, the dash is completely torn apart, and it needs to have the rust blasted out of the bed. But these things don't have any effect on how it runs, and that makes me very happy. Or it will, if it passes emissions...

A beginning: Rachel and I now have full insurance (dental, visual, medical) and an active 401k from Bookman's. It's the first time I've had that since I was a military dependent, and even then, because I had no car, I never took advantage of it because I couldn't get clear across town. I'll be getting a physical soon, and go to the first dental appointment I've had in ages.

Labels: apartments, birthday, friends, Harry Potter, insurance, moving, party, photography, slacking, Treo, truck

posted by Steve @ 11:26 PM 0 comments

Friday, July 20, 2007

Menstrual Cycles in the Middle Ages

So, Rachel, AZ and I were discussing chocolate's ability to soothe a menstrual cycle:

Steve: So, I've got a question - what happened in the middle ages, before chocolate was available?
Rachel: Oh, I have an answer - Lady Macbeth.

Labels: AZ, frightening thought, joke, Rachel, shakespeare, women

posted by Steve @ 5:49 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

How many neocons?

Q. How many neocons does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. Neocons don't bother with light bulbs. They declare a War on Darkness and set the house on fire.

From the liberal-conservative (?) blog I read: The Daily Dish.

Labels: joke, neocon, politics

posted by Steve @ 6:45 PM 0 comments

Friday, July 13, 2007

Like the Sun

I've had a lot of exposure to my in-laws lately -- because I'm still stuck in Prescott. I like my relatives a lot. I'm trying to get the damn truck running... but it's not going well. I'm trapped here, and that is what I have a problem with.

I'm leaving on Sunday, either in the truck or on a shuttle. I have to get back to life. My taxes aren't paid, I'm supposed to be moving into a new place in 2 weeks, my birthday's in there somewhere and I wasn't planning on hanging around Prescott for 11 days. I also miss Rachel terribly. I want to go home.

Labels: birthday, in-laws, Prescott, Rachel, truck

posted by Steve @ 11:46 PM 0 comments

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Wires & Games

This whole 'working from home' thing is proving to be terribly convenient: I don't think I've ever had the freedom to simply visit a relative without major concern for work. Something I could get used to.

Yesterday, we stripped the wires from the truck today and posted progress on the Dodge forum I visit (link).

Then, I went with Jordan and did some Star Wars role-playing. I refused pretty much flat-out to play someone else's character, and played a 'one-off' NPC. It was the first time I'd played a one-session character, and the first time I'd gamed in about two years.

The party was stuck on a planet and more or less at the mercy of a young man who owned the planet through gambling at Sabacc. My character wasn't a gambler, but a businessman who was at the table. The rich young man who owned the planet (Henry) had broken the heart of my character, Rigel, four years previous. Rigel determined to make money by slowly earning the trust of Henry and taking key parts of his business, which was primarily in mining the type of crystals used to make light sabers. The planet was uncharted and the only planet with these crystals not under the control of the Sith - making it very valuable, and also making it important that it be kept off of the Sith's maps.

Before the game, Rigel uncharacteristically poisoned Henry, and sought to make the game last as long as possible, knowing the young gambler wouldn't quit unless he had lost or won. Of course, Henry wasn't nearly as skilled as a gambler poisoned; the party and Rigel fleeced him fairly thoroughly before the party realized why the famed gambler was doing so poorly. Unfortunately for Rigel, one of the party members sensed that Henry had been poisoned, and successfully used the Force to prevent his death.

Having already won 25% of his profit, and realizing that Henry wasn't going to die, Rigel framed
the party for Henry's poisoning, but bought their safety in exchange for their (impressive) winnings. In exchange for Rigel's support in mining the crystals, ships to get off of the planet, and Henry's 'mercy,' the party was required to give 50% of their profits and charged with keeping the planet anonymous. They would also have Rigel's small spy network to help them.

Win-win. I had a lot of fun coming up with all of that in-game. Plus, the GM now has several extra tools with which to move the players: my spies, their debts to me, their obligation to keep the planet secret, and the fact that their vehicles are now 'on loan' instead of their own (barring sale and meaning they have to pay for them if they are destroyed).

Labels: games, in-laws, Jordan, role-playing, truck

posted by Steve @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

Monday, July 02, 2007

Prescott for the 4th

Yay! Rachel and I are going to Prescott for the 4th of July. We'll eat great food, see the in-laws, help build their new house, and rewire the truck. It's going to be great to see them and get so much done. I know that a working vacation is just what I need.

Meantime, I'm going out in a bit to check out where our next place is. I'm sad that we're moving, not because I'm particularly attached to this place, but because I've yet to live in the same place for more than roughly a year since I moved out to college - in 1998. That means this will be my 12th place in 10 years, including Okinawa.

Still, we've got enough money to be able to rent both places for a week or two, and so will be able to catalogue every last thing we own (!), partly to get rid of things we don't want or need, partly because getting rid of things will make the move easier, and also for home insurance purposes.

Oh, and this time, I have a nice camera to bring!

Labels: apartments, family, holidays, in-laws, moving, Okinawa, Rachel, truck, vacation

posted by Steve @ 2:00 PM 0 comments

Sunday, July 01, 2007

"... I'm never going to need this!"

The mantra of every high schooler in a class they dislike: "... I'm never going to need this!"

Yet, as a teacher, I could very rarely give a convincing rebuttal. Do I know what the subjunctive mood is? Yes. Subordinate conjunction? Yes. Do I use them as well as I need to, and were I ever to be asked by a stranger to give an example, I could (in fact, that last sentence illustrates both).

It makes me want to teach things that matter. Most of what we teach does matter, if nothing else as an exercise in how to get oneself to understand concepts without 'feeling like it.'

But why not the stuff that you need to survive as an American?

I wish someone had taught me how to:

Do my taxes.
How the current health care system works
The relationship between taxes and government benefits
The military-industrial complex
The effect of fanaticism in religion

I did learn some things that tangentially helped me: Supply and demand, inflation, and other basic economic concepts. I do wonder if that's because of where I went to school, though.

I responded to a post to The Daily Dish with this sentiment here.

Labels: health care, high, military, politics, rant, religion, school, taxes

posted by Steve @ 12:44 PM 0 comments

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